When I sort out and organize my pastel boxes, I make these grids to compare this piece of pastel with that one, to eliminate duplicates and near duplicates. I like to make art with whatever I'm doing, so I make these color grids. This Color Grid is from my most indulgent box of pastels, the Square Box. Not only is the box itself square, but all the pastels are square or rectangular - NuPastels, Terry Ludwigs, Great American, and so on. I prefer these shapes for the clear variety of strokes sizes they can make, and for their sharp edges.

From Image to Art to Scarf - "Purple Lava"The video for the Cabbage Art & Scarf Invitationalis up on YouTube.

The Invitational is a survival of the fittest, multimedia collaborative art project that features a number of cabbage images competing for the right to become works of art. The participants (you) act as the force of natural selection by voting on the images, tournament style. I'll transform the winners into finished artworks, then ask you to vote again on which ones to turn into designs for silk scarves. VOTE HERE!

The yellows are finished, finally. Whew, what a process!Yellows are always problematic because at full saturation it is at a value nine, very high, and has nowhere to go in the value scale when white is added. Very top heavy. Messes up all the color charts.

Sorting pastels ... this is the hard part

This is my most indulgent box of pastels. It consists of nothing but square or rectangular shaped colors, which I prefer for the straight edges. It was too full, and I couldn't find anything. Then I just had to treat myself to a nice set of Terry Ludwig pastels, which are very soft and a perfect size and shape.

On the left are some of the new pastels to add in. In the middle is part of the purple-to-red range. In back are the grids for testing the colors. As long as I'm going to all this work I may as well make art , too. I've been obsessively making color grids since college.

This is the red-to-orange range, roughly sorted into values. You can see the little squares in the tray where they have to go. Looks like about three times as many pastel as there is space. Ugh.

Two finished grids. For some reason these really appeal to me.

And the two finished columns that correspond to them. Whew! Four to go...

High Light, OctoberI've been reworking some of my favorite Camera360 photos from this year, with a higher resolution and layers of controlled effects. Here's a before-and-after pair of a high street lamp back-lighting a spectacular October tree.The original shot, below, uses a Cartoon filter at full strength, saved at low resolution. The final version uses the Cartoon and four other filters as well, mostly with low strength, and saved at full resolution. I liked the first one, but I like the new version much better!

Here is the pastel station in my studio. The natural light isn't great, so there is a full-spectrum clamp-on lamp above the easel. I like to have the pastels selection right in front of the painting for finding the right color. The cabinet is a Stanton Cart from HomeDecorators.com. They no longer carry that particular configuration, although they have many others. It is only 14" deep, so I don't have to reach very far, (I'm short), which reduces shoulder strain. It's on wheels which occassionly comes in handy, although it is quite heavy full loaded. There is a little dust catcher tray that I made from foam-core under the drawing board.

Some Pastel SetsHere are a few of the sets I've put together. The one on the far left is the one at the studio painting station. The one on the lower right is my smallest travel set. The trays are made with foam-core. You can see that they are all arranged with the same color configuration, so that no matter which set I'm using, I know where to go to find the color I need. At this point I have far more pastels than I will ever use up. I still want to get more, of course, just to make sure I have the right color. It's like getting a brand new box of crayons.

Played at 4 times speed. Pastel Techniques Class Demo - Ten 2-minute paintings done in one sitting. Quick sketches are an excellent way to warm up and to explore an idea or color combination. The time goes so quickly that you can't be fussy or fearful. It's the most fun I have as an artist. The preparation time was WAY longer of course, and being a confident artist is a lifelong pursuit.

"Monterey Cypress" Quick SketchDemo

This demo took about 20 minutes, including standing back regularly for a distance view, which is important. It was nicely edited down to 8.5 minutes which makes me sound quite a bit more articulate than I actually was.

From the Art League Blog ..."With Winter term classes underway, our camera crew is once again making the rounds of Art League classrooms to record instructor demos. Today we’re pleased to add the first pastel demo to our library, courtesy of Nancy Freeman! In the video, Nancy shows her Wednesday morning Exploring Pastel class how to do a quick pastel sketch, working from a reference photo she took near Monterey, California. It starts with showing the paper who’s boss."

About the Artist

Nancy Freeman is a native of California who lives now in Washington, DC. A lifelong artist, she paints portraits and other commissions for a living, which keeps her traditional skills tuned and supports her decades-old obsession with computer art, and pastel painting.She is currently using her 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th computers, but remembers when Dick Tracy had to make do with a two-way wrist radio.